Fried Shrimps with Longjing Tea, the Descendants of Royal Family in West Lake
2 min read
Fried shrimps with Longjing tea is a mixture of the best qreen tea and shrimps in rivers.The emerald-green Longjing Tea is presented with jade-white shrimp along with a stream of tea lingering around the shrimp.This dish embodies the splendor of spring in West Lake and the spirit of river and lake regions simultaneously.
Well,this dish has something to do with the Emperor Qianlong.It rumored that Qianlong disguised himself to travel to South China with only one imperial bodyguard.And he arrived at a village called Longjing near Mount Lion,the place where the well-known Longjing existed.Strictly speaking,the Longjing was not a well but a spring whose name was Longhong at the very beginning.The spring was discovered in the Three Kingdoms period and ran from a cave all the year around. In an extreme draught year in Ming Dynasty,the villagers dug the spring into a well and found a Dragon-shape stone at the bottom.So they named it Dragon Well. Therefore,Longjing indicated the name of a tea variety,a village,and a well.Beside this,a temple nearby and some tea tree in it were called Longjing coincidently. What a name!
Let’s talk back to the Emperor Qianlong.He was deeply impressed by the beautiful scenery of green mountains and tea trees.lt was something similar witll what had been described in poem:”Under the white cloud,stream of smoke rises besides the spring;water babbles along the clear creek and mosses.”Qianlony strolled to the Longjing temple and was served with a cup of tea made by the wdlc! from Longjing Well.The tea leaves were dark green an d looked quietly elegant in the rup.Taking a sip ot it,Qianlong was caught by its freshness.As he looked around at the eighteen tea trees,he acclaimed the tea as tribute.Since then,the tea went to the Palace in Beijing every year.
Common people had no chance to taste the Longjing tea at that time.When Qianlong was about to leave,he picked some fresh tea to his temporary dwelling palace and ordered the royal chef to make tea for him.The chef came up with an idea when he was exposed to these lovely tea leaves.He put some tea leaves into the royal dish-white-jade shrimp.Much to his surprise,the green tea and white shrimp brought the best flavor to each other,leading to a fresher flavor of the shrimp without any fishy smell.Qianlong was greatly pleased by this dish and commanded that this formula be fixed since then. That’s how fried shrimps with Longjing tea made itself the Emperor’s favorite dish in Palace.Graduallv.it was spread to the folks so that we can enjoy this tasty dish at any time if you wish now.
